Pompeii Ristorante — Restaurant in Los Altos

I rarely write reviews but my experience yesterday evening led me to write one. My friend and I arrived around 7:00pm and were easily seated. Food was really wonderful, salad and pizza along with my wine selection "Rutherford Sauvignon Blanc". The issue ended up being our waiter. Initially he was friendly and our food came out very quickly, but as time passed by, we got the impression he wanted us to finish up quickly and get out of there. He brought the dessert menu and stopped by about five times to check if we wanted something. It became a little annoying and I told him I would wave him down when we wanted something. His response was he now had a large table to take care of, so basically "good luck with that!" Hmmm...so we decided to not bother with dessert since it was going to be an issue for him and we put our credit cards on the table as a sign we were ready to pay the bill. He passed by a couple of times and since we were not in a rush, did not initially mind. After a few minutes I then decided to give him the "pay the bill" signal as he passed by and he quickly stopped and said "I don't have time for that"! What? You don't have time? How rude is that? So I said to my friend, okay, he doesn't want to take our money, so I guess we will just leave! We proceeded to put our credit cards away and our coats on and it was then he stopped with the bill. We paid and left. I was really annoyed that we were made to feel that we were a bother. Our dining experience should not have been impacted or altered because of other people this waiter needed to attend to. For this reason alone I will be reluctant to return. Shame as the food and the ambience of this restaurant was...

7/27/2022

Pompeii Ristorante 100 State St Los Altos, CA 94022

On our continuing exploration of downtown Los Altos, the wifey and I tried this place for Italian for a late July lunch. Los Altos has lots of free city parking so we parked at an adjacent lot. This place has a nice setup for patio dining with tables on the corners and ample inside tables. We sat inside and service was fast and good.

We ordered the Calamari Fritti, Spaghetti and Meatballs, and Steak Panini. The Calamari was a bit overdone so a little tough, chewy and crispy but this place uses real Cocktail Sauce (with horse radish) instead of the Plain Jane Marinara that most other places use, be sure to ask for at least two ramekins. The wife's spaghetti was a little salty and had nice flavor with generous size meatballs. I was happy with my Panini sandwich though the edges of the steak were tough and chewy. I guess they could do a better job with trimming the meat, but I can handle gristle and fat, so it's OK with me.

This was a nice find for our exploration. Good food, service and value. Definitely repeatable.

1/2/2025

Have repeated many times, delicious Italian food. Wifey's favorite is the seafood Fettucine and I like trying different dishes, this time the Capellini Pomodoro, flavorful tomato...

We have been dining at Pompeii for years and it always feels like visiting a close family friend who offers a warm welcome, excellent food and libation. Pompeii has true heart, the food is consistently authentic Italian, fresh, authentic Italian choices and a wonderful selection of wines. What we most look forward to is the whole experience, including the Pompeii server team. Now that we are doing take-out every Friday when we used to come in, I look forward to seeing our familiar faces of Francisco and Carlos and the team. We appreciate what they do for our community. Please support Pompeii during these challenging times, enjoy the food...